


Imprints of the past

by madnessfk



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 20:30:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1048262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madnessfk/pseuds/madnessfk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It`s an AU, where the previous companion of The Doctor was Rose, who wasn`t survive Bad Wolf transformation</p>
            </blockquote>





	Imprints of the past

**Author's Note:**

> English isn`t my first language, so there`s probably a lots of mistakes there, sorry. I just wanted to give it a try and see if I can write any fanfiction in English (probably failed). It`s a translation actually, I don`t even usually write like this, but I found out it very difficult to keep the same style as I use writing in Russian. Still, hope you`ll like it.

The Master couldn`t say he was particularly exited about that girl The Doctor brought on board some time ago.  
There wasn`t anything to be exited about Rose Tyler at the fist place: she wasn`t, even considering her human nature, smart or talented or given a good memory for a tongue twisters (which was actually a good news), but somehow she managed to make The Doctor a little bit more alive, a little bit alike that person he was before the Time War. Just when The Master started to think there simply was not _before_ – only The War and everything afterwards. 

And that worth suffering her company. Anyway, The Doctor needed someone kind to remind him of mercy – and The Master certainly was not that person, he couldn’t do anything like that, only watch The Doctor slowly becoming…somebody else. 

Master barely remembered the day Rose Tyler died – The Doctor switched him off before sending the girl in her own time.

The Master never ever had dreams while being offline, not until that moment. That day he dreamed of a golden fire, burning everything it reaches, and heat, that made you blaze from the inside, and bitter taste of ash, and somebody`s familiar and yet such unusually different lips. 

By the time Master opened his eyes, Rose was already dead. She was just a pale corpse The Doctor held in his hands to bring it home; so pale, as if something sucked all the life out of it into a big angry black hole. The Master has seen a lots of dead people in his life, most of them he killed himself, he looked into their blind eyes and burned their planets by pressing one single button and yet… 

And yet he was sure that out of them all Rose Tyler was dead in a very special amazingly scary way. There was something in her empty, burned glance, that made you want to turn away.

The Doctor came back few days later, and he smelled alcohol and cigarette smoke. He kept silent, closed himself it the library and refused to get out until he read all the “Cooking” section – and even that one time his only goal was a bottle of vine. 

The Master couldn’t force himself not to think that was not temporally. That it will stay this way forever: with The Doctor being drunk and reading War and Peace for the fifths time somewhere deep inside the library, covered with book dust and darkness, and him – stuck in the control room surrounded by its lights and with no idea of what to do.

He wasn`t really sure, when That Thing started. Maybe he just refused to notice it at first. Ignoring things is not the best way to deal with them, and all his genius tactic of not paying attention turns out to be useless very soon. 

The Master knew he wasn`t insane: if he was, he would notice it a long time ago. And still, there she is. 

Rose Tyler and her impassibly dead eyes, with her empty, blank face, staying in the shadow right beside him every time The Master turned to check. Staring into the nothingless, as if there was something only she could see, and sometimes her blue lips whispered silently the only word over and over again. _“Doctor”._

She didn`t seemed to be lost or scared – just fantastically perfectly dead. She never did anything, she stayed silent and…she just was there. Like a little mote in the eye. 

The Master desperately tried to figure out the mistake in the process of his electronic brain that made the ghost appear, but his access to his own body simply wasn`t that big – The Doctor didn`t trust him enough. The Doctor, who was lost in the opposite side of the Tardis` eternity, and The Master couldn`t even entertain himself with a thoughts of The Doctor`s horrible death – if that happened, The Master would already know. 

The Master wasn`t worried about him, not really: sooner or later The Doctor will run out of vine, sambuca and brandy, so he won`t have any other choice but to get out of his cave.

The Master, of course, was right. 

The Doctor looked predictably horrible: his eyes were almost red, somehow even colder and even more faded than usual. He wandered through the console room, through living room and kitchen, desperately trying to find something that could help his hangover. The Master followed him with a curious gaze, wondering if he would manage to realize everything more or less alcohol was gone a long time ago. 

Once The Doctor stood right in front of Rose, his broken eyes meeting her dead stare.

_“Doctor”_ – she whispered silently.

The Doctor lazily took his cloak, left on a hanger few months ago, already slightly covered with dust. 

“Going somewhere?” – The Master asked with no interest in his voice whatsoever, although it was quite clear he really meant “Think before answering and say no”. But The Doctor wasn`t in the condition to recognize such a complicated subtext.

“To London, to get drunk as shit and probably to change a profession”, - he said, sounding, well, like nothing – and a little bit tired. For a moment it seemed like The Doctor really considered his last words, trying to choose between fireman and an actor. 

The Master nodded as if he was totally okay with that. He wasn`t actually going to do anything about it, but Rose Tyler stared at him awaiting, and something deep-deep inside horribly melted under this gaze. It wasn`t scary or forcing, but it made you think “Oh, all right, just stop it already”.

The Master grabbed The Doctor`s arm, dragged him to the bathroom and dipped his face into the sink full of ice cold water. Few minutes later Doctor was perfectly sober – mostly because of the indignation he felt.

They stood like this for some time, not moving, The Doctor shaking and freezing and looking into the emptiness with his impossible gaze, and The Master still holding him, loosing that moment the Doctor pressed his face into The Master`s shoulder. 

_“Doctor”_

“I`m so really tired”, - he whispered, - “I just…don`t want it to be like this anymore”

And that probably was the most intimate and helpless thing he ever told The Master. 

Like this meant running thought the Universe to suffering worlds waiting for someone to help. Like this meant becoming the hero of ancient legends and the monster from fairytales. Like this meant keep losing people who dared to get onboard of his magic blue box.

A shadow of sorrow zipped through dead eyes of Rose Tyler. Or maybe it didn`t – it was so hard to tell.

The Doctor agreed not to drink _too much_ , and they forgot this conversation for some time: The Doctor was too busy dealing with the consequences of his alcohol marathon. 

Rose Tyler, who became familiar once again, kept quiet: her face was still, her eyes focused on the nothingless. Luckily, The Master figured out he was not crazy, so the problem was somewhere else. He hoped.

He already started to imagine a reason for to make The Doctor look through his programs without asking directly, but The Doctor did if first.

“I want to install a new option”, - he said, opening a panel on The Master`s neck to get an access to his brain. 

There was a long pause after that – The Master couldn`t see what exactly The Doctor was doing, although he knew how this process works and froze unconsciously waiting for wires to be connected to his circuits. 

Screens flushed with rows of complicated code – his code, which controlled every little move of his body, and usually The Master wouldn`t let this code to be edited, but not today. He decided to make an exception for this one time only, even thought the feeling of your own mind being changed was especially nasty. 

“...so next time you`ll stop me from doing stupid stuff”.

By The Doctor`s standards “stupid stuff” meant making too many efforts saving somebody. That sounded quite vague, and The Master simply wasn`t sure he could manage this, considering he was stuck in the Tardis, but there was no choice. 

The Doctor tapped a keyboard for some time before freezing suddenly – The Master couldn’t see why. 

“ Huh. That`s weird”, – The Doctor mumbled, still staring at the code, and pointed at the screen, - “You see?”

The Master rolled his eyes.

“It`s like there`s something else in your code. Have you noticed anything unusual recently?”

The Master looked at dead Rose Tyler staying right in front of him.

«I haven`t”, - he lied, - “Is that possible you installed something last time and forgot about it?’

“Don`t be silly” – The Doctor said crossly, - “I`ve never had any memory problems.”

The Master wondered, still looking into lifeless eyes of poor Rose Tyler, could it have happened, that the moment the Tardis ripped apart her miserable human brains, their minds touched each other. Could it have happened that this girl staring at him is just an imprint of a past in his head, a blank shadow of something gone a long time ago. 

Unless he is crazy after all. There is just one way to find out.

The Doctor highlighted the code and pressed “delete”.


End file.
